PxTP-2011

Background

The goal of this new workshop is to bring together researchers working on proof production from automated theorem provers with potential consumers of proofs. Machine-checkable proofs have been proposed for applications like proof-carrying code and certified compilation, as well as for exchanging knowledge between different automated reasoning systems. For example, interactive theorem provers can import results from otherwise untrusted high-performance solvers, by means of proofs the solvers produce. In such situations, one automated reasoning tool can make use of the results of another, without having to trust that the second tool is sound. It is only necessary to be able to reconstruct a proof that the first tool will accept, in order to import the result without increasing the size of the trusted computing base.

This simple idea of proof exchange for theorem proving becomes quite complicated under the real-world constraints of highly complex and heterogeneous proof producers and proof consumers. For example, even the issue of a standard proof format for a single class of solvers, like SMT solvers, is quite difficult to address, as different solvers use different inference systems. It may be quite challenging, from an engineering and possibly also theoretical point of view, to fit these into a single standard format. Emerging work from several groups proposes standard meta-languages or parametrized formats to achieve flexibility while retaining a universal proof language.

Topics

Topics of interest for this workshop include all aspects of proof exchange among automated reasoning tools. More specifically, some suggested topics are:

• proposed proof formats for different classes of logic solvers (SAT, SMT, QBF, First-Order ATP, Higher-Order ATP, Rewriting, etc.).
• meta-languages and logical frameworks for proofs, particularly proof systems designed for solvers.
• proof checking tools and algorithms.
• proof translation and methods for importing proofs, including proof replaying or reconstruction.
• tools and case studies related to analyzing proofs produced by solvers, and proof metrics.
• applications relying on importing proofs from automated theorem provers, such as certified static analysis, proof-carrying code, or certified compilation.
• data structures and algorithms for improved proof production in solvers (for example, more time- or memory-efficient ways of representing proofs).

Program committee

• Clark Barrett (New York University)
• Christoph Benzmüller (Articulate Software)
• Sacha Böhme (Technische Universität München)
• Amy Felty (University of Ottawa)
• Pascal Fontaine (INRIA, University of Nancy), co-chair
• Leonardo de Moura (Microsoft research)
• Hans de Nivelle (University of Wroclaw)
• David Pichardie (INRIA Rennes)
• Stephan Schulz (Technische Universität München)
• Aaron Stump (The University of Iowa), co-chair
• Geoff Sutcliffe (University of Miami)
• Laurent Théry (INRIA)
• Tjark Weber (University of Cambridge)
• Bruno Woltzenlogel Paleo (Technische Universität Wien)

PXTPT'11 is supported by:s